Beloved Enemy
by Jan Lee
Summary: ONESHOT. She's crying over him again and this time, the reasons are deeper than loyalty. Katsuga-centric. Katsuga/Sasuke. Drama. Sort of citrus.


**Summary**: ONESHOT. She's crying over him again and this time, the reasons are deeper than loyalty. Katsuga-centric. Katsuga/Sasuke. Drama. Sort of citrus.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Samurai Kings.

**Rating**: **M**

**A/N:** I love the Katsuga/Sasuke flirting that occurs much too infrequently in the anime. And I think that Katsuga reacts to Kenshin's pretty face more than anything else. Sasuke is shameless when it comes to Katsuga, and I'd like to see her take advantage of that a bit more. Here, she does.

* * *

**Beloved Enemy**

* * *

The night was cool and utterly dark as the thick boughs of the forest trees blanketed the sky from view. Katsuga had perched on a wide branch some hours ago, but as she drew up her knees to her chest, she tried once more to stifle her sobs. She couldn't. The pain in her heart twisted- - razor-sharp, barbed, keen- -throbbing agony through her so she could think of nothing else.

Her lord and master Kenshin had decided to marry that boyish, plain girl from the north. He assured her it would augment his land holdings and replenish his soldiers for the next skirmish against the Takeda clan. His eyes had wanted her approval and so, out of love, she had nodded it. Her ninja reasoning understood his strategy, but her womanly emotions swamped her with disappointment and resentment.

She hated being such a _woman_ about all this. Unsteady. Weak. Emotional.

"Tut, tut," said a low voice from the dark, "you shouldn't be off your guard."

Instantly she straightened with alertness, but much too late. It didn't matter, anyway. She could recognize that stupid Sasuke's voice anywhere. Even over the din of a battlefield, her ears were attuned to the timbre of it. Sighing, she kept her forehead to her knees in the vain hope he wouldn't notice her tear-stained face.

"Go away," she mumbled.

His presence neared, but she didn't have the energy to chase him off. Without seeing it, she could imagine him crouching in front of her, green eyes quick and intelligent and teasing. He said, "Is that how you would treat your betrothed?"

She was too tired for this banter. "We're not getting married."

"Yet, I hear _someone_ is," he replied, easily. She flinched at his words. His voice came from where she thought he'd be, sitting at her feet. When he gently pinched her bare toes, she curled them inwards, wondering how she could get rid of him and his annoying habit of flirting with her. "Is that why you're crying again?"

Why would he ask the question when he already knew the answer? "Leave me in peace," she said. Her misery was so profound and enveloping and she only wanted to drown in it. Alone. "I don't want to deal with you."

A long moment stretched between them. Then he said, "I can comfort you if you let me."

Her head snapped up. "What?"

_He couldn't be serious. Could he?_ He was near enough to her that she could see the general outline of his face and that scarred hatsuburi he wore over his forehead and cheeks. Somehow his hand curled around her wrist and in a smooth, firm movement, he brought her to standing with him. They were the same height, eye to eye, nose to nose, and to her dismay, mouth to mouth. _He's serious._

"Your heartbreak is obviously painful, and you don't have to bear it alone." She jumped when he touched the side of her face, not to hurt, but to caress, with one of those sharpened talons he wore on his fingers. "I can help comfort you."

The woman in her sighed, acquiescing, surrendering, to the male heat that rolled off him in waves. In her mind, she put up the pretense of writhing with indecision. He was the enemy. He would take advantage of her weak state. She was a ninja and should be stronger than this. She was being unreasonable and stupid because of her emotions. But the bastard knew and made the choice for her.

She ought to slit his throat on principle.

She didn't. She should've.

Sasuke curved his arm around her waist, tightening his grip on her side, and leapt off the branch. It was either follow or fall. She followed. His motion through the trees was natural enough that she could keep pace easily on the inside of his arm. Cold air whistled over her ears, her throat, chilling the heat that had gathered under her skin. Her brain hovered on a point of inattention, content to let him guide her steps.

The kilometers flew past in silence. Implicitly, she knew they were moving toward the Tiger of Kai's palace. She headed into enemy territory without express permission from her lord; no one knew where she'd be if her absence was noticed. This was nothing new, and yet, guilt preyed on her.

"Is bringing me to the palace a wise choice?" she asked him.

He tilted his head without breaking pace. "It's late. Anyone sensible will be sleeping. Besides," he said, and she heard the smirk in his voice, "we're ninja, right? It's our thing to be unseen."

He had a point and she hated it, but didn't argue. She kept her eyes on their path. The soles of her feet gripped the roughness and cold of the tree branches in time with Sasuke's. After a while longer, she expected for the forest to break open a screen to the palace, and it did not disappoint. Involuntarily, she gasped. They stopped a moment, and when she glanced the question at him, he patted her hip.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

She slowly agreed. "Yes. It is."

The Takeda clan's palace glowed like a red jewel in the nest of frothy, dark forest surrounding it. Gentle light cast by torches highlighted the red inlay tiles and intricate gold designs. The craftsmanship was exquisite, with arches, sand gardens, and plenty of space. That was Sasuke's home, she thought. He was bringing her home.

"Ready?" he asked after a moment of letting her soak in the sight.

No. "Yes. Let's go."

His hand tightened on her waist; she felt his muscles coil- -her body mimicked his and in unison, they sprang to the deep forest path that only ninjas could traverse. Several minutes later, she and Sasuke landed silently on the roof tiles of the palace. He released her then, crouching at a section of tiles, his fingers wiggling under them, loosening them. Once he seemed to have a grip, he hauled up the whole section and she saw it had been a cleverly hidden trapdoor. He motioned for her to wait, and then he hopped down.

Fascinated, she came to the edge of the square opening and peered into the darkness. A strike of flint to steel and then the small flicker of firelight. It moved closer until his face appeared, pleasant and welcoming, and he lifted up his hand to help her jump. She accepted, though the ninja in her rolled her eyes, and landed with an imperceptible noise.

Sasuke went about lighting some other lanterns. His room was cozy, not cramped, and like hers, was sparsely furnished. A low table took residence at one side of the room, along with squashy sitting cushions. Lining the walls were shelves filled with neat pyramids of scrolls and she noticed several ends of weapons' caches in niches where the scrolls would not fit. There was an alcove up one step to her left, which seemed to be where he slept. The room was warm, though he hadn't occupied it, and she did not see a fireplace.

"Sit, if you wish," he told her, gesturing to the cushions. "The tea will be up shortly."

She sat, mainly because they both knew she'd already accepted his invitation. "Thank you."

Then she watched as he grabbed a crook from the wall and used it to pull closed the trapdoor overhead. A small _ting _resonated in the room, which caused Sasuke to step across the floor. At the table, as the candles in the lanterns filled the shadowy corners, she saw a break in the design of the wood on his wall in the corner. He went to this new panel, notched it with a couple fingers, and slid it aside. After he withdrew a tray with a tea set arranged and two cups, he came to the table and sat next to her, setting the tray in front of him.

"Here we are," he said, pouring for her first, then himself. "Something to soothe your wounded heart."

She accepted it, smelled the fragrant green leaves and to her surprise, mint. "I doubt tea will heal heartbreak."

"And why shouldn't it?" he asked.

Katsuga considered ignoring his comment, but when she looked at him, she realized he expected a serious answer. He'd perched his fingers on his tea cup and his brows had an expectant lift to them. His question took her off guard, as if he understood the magical properties of tea and she did not.

"Tea is tea," she answered, "and nothing more."

He shook his head with the mien of a disappointed master. "Katsuga."

"Sasuke."

"Tea is…" His hand fluttered, vaguely birdlike. "…it's ancestral. It's memory and structure. We have taken tea with our allies and enemies, with our families in different places since we were old enough to hold tea cups and understand its tradition. Tea is who we _are_."

"Hmm," she replied, sipping from her cup, "you're waxing philosophical."

"I'm pointing out that if tea can be all those things, it can also be medicinal for the heart."

She conceded his point to drift into her thoughts. The cup was smooth white porcelain, like a warm egg nestled in the palm of her hand. Thin steam whipped off the top of the dark liquid as it rippled from the tremors of her hand. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps he knew she needed something to believe in because the love she'd put so much faith into had not won over Kenshin. _Kenshin, you're getting married to someone else_. Closing her eyes, she considered the ache in her head from the crying and weariness and decided she was sick of feeling sick, of wallowing in self-pity, of losing to a noblewoman. She, a woman of desirability and fatal skill, had lost to what essentially amounted to needlepoint. Shameful.

She had nothing left to lose. Nothing left in reserve.

And she only had to ask, to extend the invitation, to Sasuke. There was no time like the present. "I prefer a more…aggressive approach to medicine," she said, opening her eyes to take in Sasuke's response. "I wondered if you'd participate."

Gingerly he set down the tea cup. He reached to her face and threaded a long lock of fair hair between two of his fingers. It had been a warning, she realized, when he leaned forward over the corner of the table to kiss her. She tensed, mainly because she had imagined time and again Kenshin's lips on her mouth, and so the presence of a different man thrilled her, frightened her. Heat spread in her chest, layered with a tingle when he cupped the side of her bare neck with his hand. Part of her brain forgot that hand as his tongue coaxed her lips apart and took her mouth under thorough scrutiny.

Oh, God, he was so good.

Her eyes closed under the wash of Sasuke's kiss, and the nervous tension and heartache drained from her, only to be replaced with a different kind of tension, a different kind of ache. His hand moved- -she tracked its progress as it slid down the slash of v-neck to her navel, working nimble fingers under the tight leather. A shiver shimmied through her when those fingers slipped beneath the form-fitting leather to the skin of her hip, caressing upwards. As his hand came around the sensitive underside of her breast, Katsuga allowed the drunken sensation of his heat and touch to overwhelm her senses.

She was vaguely aware when Sasuke popped her shoulder free from the uniform, and after his mouth left a shockingly hot trail down the column of her throat, she wasn't aware of anything else except golden heat and a fulfilling, lingering ache.

* * *

The morning arrived too soon. Exhausted from her emotions and from other physical exertions, Katsuga snuggled closer to Sasuke. He relaxed his arm over her stomach. His body was taut and wiry, unexpectedly smooth and flecked with a million constellations of freckles. In court or nobility, his freckles would be construed as blemishes. To her, they seemed like an accurate map of the night sky. At that moment, she realized she had inadvertently timed her breathing with his.

She stared at the privacy screen, painted with a pattern of long grasses and distant, flying birds and wondered when she'd feel regret for her tryst with him. Kenshin was going to get married, she reminded herself. But the feel of the knowledge didn't hold the same weight that it had yesterday. She even felt that the air was easier to breathe today.

Maybe the 'tea' really was medicinal for her spirit. Then Sasuke's fingers wiggled, tickling, and she was off-guard enough to let herself giggle with it.

"You're awake already?" he asked, his lips close to her ear. "We didn't sleep much last night."

Smiling, albeit tiredly, she said, "Yes. But you were right about everything."

"I was? Imagine that." She didn't appreciate the ironic tone. He continued, "Will you stay for a good breakfast? It's the most important meal of the day."

When she pretended to mull it over, he tickled her again, which became something of an undignified wrestle match that had the pillow and covers flying every which way. It ended when she let him pin her arms over her head, his knees on the outside of her hips. Her own smile seemed to bring a smile out from him, and it was beautiful smile, she saw, as she lay underneath him. That grin, she thought, could bring sunshine to a cloudy day.

"You seem pensive," he said, leaning his forehead to hers. "Should I leave you alone?"

The dark of the night had hidden the fact that the green in his eyes had rings of gold around the pupils. "No. I don't think you should leave me alone."

Then he kissed her, and she didn't think anymore.

* * *

**A/N:** I might toy some with the ending; in fact, I might toy some more with this couple and the situation. Those of you who like this pairing, yea or nay? Let me know. =)


End file.
